Sánchez's hyper-leadership emerges again with the blackout
The legislature focuses on crises, court cases and matters of state that fall under the president's jurisdiction.
MadridThe Moncloa Palace is left in darkness. As soon as he learns that the blackout affects not only the Spanish prime minister, but the entire country, Pedro Sánchez quickly heads to the Red Eléctrica headquarters.Superman "He's at the helm. There's no meeting or strategy. From the very beginning, he takes control in a spectacular tone," explains an aide to the head of state. "It's surprising how calm he remains." "I was getting stressed out of my eyes," comments one minister. Sánchez's reaction on Monday is nothing new for a figure inevitably linked to crises linked to emergencies and catastrophes.
Sánchez's hyper-leadership has re-emerged this week in the governments of the socialist leader, who has accumulated a pandemic, a volcanic eruption in La Palma, and the DANA (Dangerous Land Use Disaster) in the Valencian Country as his main adversities. However, regarding the rest, the origin of the electricity blackout in the Iberian Peninsula is still a mystery, which added to the difficulties when it came to giving explanations. "The magnitude of the crisis naturally means that it has to be the president of the government who takes the lead," emphasizes a senior official from the Secretariat of State for Communication. "It has been very clear from the beginning," he adds. Electricity sends an initial message to the public at midday. But Sánchez does not appear until six hours after the blackout, which gives the PP wings to talk about a "news blackout." The Moncloa government denies the accusation, although it admits that the prime minister leaves when he has minimal information. Before 6 p.m. on Monday, neither the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, nor the Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, spoke. In fact, their predecessor, Teresa Ribera, did speak from Brussels, but, contrary to the official line from the Moncloa government, denies any evidence of a cyberattack.
In a few days, Aagesen is expected to gain prominence in the communications arena. She already did so at the press conference following Wednesday's extraordinary cabinet meeting and is now leading the investigative committee created to find the causes of the blackout on the peninsula. The third vice president of the Spanish government joined the European Commission last November with Ribera's departure and is virtually unknown to the public. However, it will be Sánchez who will appear in Congress next Wednesday to account for the blackout.
The Spanish government assumes it will take time to clarify the causes, and once again, this lack of details is the main weakness for the Spanish prime minister ahead of this session in the lower house. "Unlike the PP, we have nothing to hide and no self-serving version to offer. We're not going to make it up," the executive makes clear, although some voices suggest that the final answer to the blackout may end up being "more prosaic" and point to human error. The PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will be peppering Sánchez with questions, which this time makes it more difficult for him to lash out at the conservative party. For the moment, the Spanish government has pointed the finger at the companies, warning that they are defending their particular interests due to the compensation at stake, and some ministers have even accused the PP of "working directly" for the electricity companies.
Defense spending
Wednesday's plenary session in Congress had been scheduled for days, but it was for Sánchez to present the defense investment plan he himself presented at the Moncloa Palace two weeks ago. Both debates will overlap. The coincidence of these two major fronts in such a short time has further reinforced Sánchez's image of hyper-leadership, and his team is aware of this. "There is no strategy to strengthen him," they assert, "but rather, these are issues that affect practically the entire government, and therefore, he must lead the prime minister, they note. Furthermore, his character is added: "There is no problem that is not on his table. He takes on all the problems. He could have let [Defense Minister Margarita] Robles burn out, but no," they point out from the Moncloa Palace, referring to military spending. In this sense, on Wednesday, Sánchez will also have to address the crisis over contracts with Israeli companies, which, for the moment, the blackout has allowed him to circumvent.
The wars in Ukraine and Palestine have fostered the Spanish president's hyper-leadership, as have several emergency cases, but also the judicial context surrounding his figure. The blackout occurred shortly after the Badajoz Court announced the indictment of Sánchez's brother, David Sánchez, for allegedly awarding him a position in the Extremadura provincial council. Disregarding the judicial decisions, the Spanish government reiterated that it is part of the "mud machine" that ultimately seeks to destroy the president, in the same vein as the case opened against his wife, Begoña Gómez, and that of the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz.
It has been just over a year since the cries of the Socialist leaders during an exceptional federal committee meeting, with the militants surrendered outside the PSOE headquarters on Ferraz Street. Sánchez had taken five days to reflect on his continuity at the helm of the ship after learning of Gómez's indictment, with the argument that the alleged lawfare Against his background, he had reached his limit. That episode clearly illustrated the PSOE's dependence on a leader who always seeks to turn a crisis into an opportunity. "He takes heart in crises. This is obvious," concludes one minister.
